Former NASA Johnson Space Center Chief Aaron Cohen Dies at 79

WASHINGTON ? Spaceflight pioneer
Aaron Cohen, who was at the helm of NASA?s Johnson Space Center during the
Challenger shuttle tragedy and the agency?s subsequent return to flight, died Friday
after a lengthy illness. He was 79.

Cohen, who spent 33
years with NASA, was serving as acting deputy administrator in 1993 when he
left the agency to accept an appointment as a professor at his alma mater,
Texas A&M University in Bryan, Texas.

?Aaron Cohen was one of my early
mentors here in NASA and he was instrumental in the success of numerous pivotal
achievements in human space flight,? NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in
a Feb. 25 statement. ?His engineering expertise and rigor were tremendous
assets to our nation and NASA. Aaron provided the critical and calm guidance
needed at the Johnson Space Center to successfully recover from the Challenger
accident and return the space shuttle to flight. We will miss him as a
colleague, mentor, and a friend. Our hearts go out to his wife, Ruth, and the
rest of his family.?

Cohen joined NASA in 1962 and
served in key leadership roles during the agency?s Apollo lunar program. From
1969 to 1972 he managed the Apollo Command and Service Module efforts. He
subsequently oversaw the design, development, production and test flights of
the agency?s space shuttle fleet as manager of NASA?s Space
Shuttle Orbiter Project Office from 1972 to 1982. After serving as director
of engineering at Johnson for several years, he was named center director in
1986, serving in that post until 1993.

Cohen twice earned the
Presidential Rank of Distinguished Executive ? in 1982 and 1988 ? the highest
award given to federal executives. He was also a three-time recipient of NASA?s
Distinguished Service Medal. Cohen was a member of the National Academy of
Engineering and a fellow of the American Astronautical Society and the American
Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics here.

He was a distinguished alumnus of
Texas A&M, from which he earned a bachelor?s in mechanical engineering in
1952. He earned a master?s in applied mathematics from Stevens Institute of
Technology, Hoboken, N.J., in 1958. He also was a recipient of honorary
doctorates from Stevens Institute and from the University of Houston-Clear
Lake.